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Title: Queen of The Damned
Author(s) and/or artist(s): Anne Rice
Genre: Gothic, Horror

Synopsis:

"This is the third book in The Vampire Chronicles, Queen of the Damned, follows three parallel storylines.

Lestat's journey to a cavern deep beneath a Greek Island on his quest for the origins of the vampire race awakened Akasha, Queen of the Damed and mother of all vampires, from her 6,000 year sleep. Awake and angry, Akasha plans to save mankind from itself by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover to the level of the gods.

As these three threads wind seamlessly together, the origins and culture of vampires are revealed, as is the length and breadth of their effect on the mortal world. The threads are brought together in the twentieth century when the fate of the living and the living dead is rewritten. " taken from annerice.com

"Part One follows several different people over the same period of several days. Several of the characters appear in the two previous books, including Armand, Daniel (the "boy reporter" of Interview with the Vampire), Marius, Louis, Gabrielle and Santino. Each of the six chapters in Part One tells a different story about a different person or group of people. Two things unify these chapters: a series of dreams about red-haired twin sisters, and the fact that a powerful being is killing vampires around the world by means of spontaneous combustion." taken from wikipedia

My Own View: I like this book the most among the other Vampire Chronicles. This is an intriguing story and make you want to know what really happened in this story. But I should warn you, this is a dark book.

Rating: 4/5

Title: Excel Saga
Author: Rikdo Koshi
Genre: Action, Parody, Science Fiction

A manga series written and illustrated by Rikdo Koshi. It has been serialized in Young King OURs since 1996, with individual chapters collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Shōnen Gahosha. The series follows the attempts of Across, a "secret ideological organization", to conquer the city of Fukuoka as a first step towards world domination. The titular character of the series, Excel, is a key member of the group working towards this goal, while the city is defended by a shadowy government agency led by Dr. Kabapu.

Believing the World to be corrupt, the secret organization Across plans to conquer the world. The first step in the plan for world domination is to begin by focusing on one city in order to minimize setbacks. Across consists of the leader of the organization, Il Palazzo, and officers Excel and Hyatt. Excel and Hyatt live in an apartment building in the city, along with their pet dog Menchi, who is also their emergency food supply. Living in the neighboring apartment are three guys: Iwata, Sumiyoshi and Watanabe, and other building dwellers such as co-worker Matsuya, and later Ropponmatsu, who all work for the Department of City Security under Dr Kabapu, who intends to stop Across. Eventually the members of Across begin making appeals directly to the City's citizens before Il Palazzo publicly declares the existence of Across and its intentions to the public.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Victor Entertainment. Directed by Shinichi Watanabe and featuring animation from J.C.Staff, the series premiered on TV Tokyo in 1999. TV Tokyo only aired twenty-five of the series' twenty-six episodes, with the finale having been intentionally made too violent and obscene for public broadcast. As such, it was only included in the DVD release of the series, although it has since been broadcast in other markets.

The series has enjoyed some critical success coupled with respectable sales.

Rating: Highly recomended to those who love absurd humor. This is a series about grandiose plans that are always ineptly executed(usually by morons) resulting in hilarious failure.

Title: Hagakure
Author: Yamamoto Tsunetomo (as compiled by Tsuramoto Tashiro)
Genre: Martial arts, philosophy



Hagakure (Kyūjitai: 葉隱; Shinjitai: 葉隠; meaning Hidden by the Leaves or hidden leaves), or Hagakure Kikigaki (葉隠聞書) is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third ruler of what is now the Saga prefecture in Japan. Tsuramoto Tashiro compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716; however, it was not published until many years afterwards. Hagakure is also known as The Book of the Samurai, Analects of Nabeshima or Hagakure Analects.

The book records Tsunetomo's views on bushido, the warrior code of the samurai. Hagakure is sometimes said to assert that bushido is really the "Way of Dying" or living as though one was already dead, and that a samurai must be willing to die at any moment in order to be true to his lord. His saying "the way of the warrior is death" was a summation of the willingness to sacrifice that bushido codified.

After his master died, Tsunetomo himself was forbidden to perform junshi, a retainer's ritual suicide, by an edict of the Tokugawa Shogunate combined with his master's disapproval of the tradition. Hagakure may have been written partially in an effort to outline the role of the samurai in a more peaceful society. Several sections refer to the "old days", and imply a dangerous weakening of the samurai class since that time.

The Hagakure was written approximately one hundred years after the start of the Tokugawa era, a time of relative peace. With no major campaigns to fight, the samurai were transforming from a warrior to an administrative class. His work represents one approach to the problem of maintaining military preparedness and a proper military mindset in a time when neither has much practical application.

Recomendation: This is a good book for someone who wishes to know what samurai ideas, code and values from this period of time. Many still consider it to be one of the essential readings on bushido. Recommended for those who enjoy history, philosophy or wish to know more about the samurai of that particular time.

Titles: The 'Darksword' series.
Authors: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Genre: Sword and Sorcery, Fantasy, Science fiction

The Darksword series of books, written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (cover art by Larry Elmore), which tells the story of a young man, born without magic in a world where everyone is born with it, who has been prophesied to destroy the world in which he lives. The series consists of the initial three books (The Darksword Trilogy), a supplemental role-playing volume, and a single-volume sequel. The books are published by Bantam Spectra (The Science-Fiction division of Random House).

The Darksword Trilogy
Forging the Darksword (January 198 cool
Doom of the Darksword (May 198 cool
Triumph of the Darksword (September 198 cool

Subsequent Volumes
Darksword Adventures (December 198 cool
Legacy of the Darksword (June 199 cool

Recommendation: Recommended. I really enjoyed these books. They are far from the 'typical' sword and sorcery' fare, however. Those who like 'light fantasy' may not enjoy the the deep plot(s), background and political/religious aspects of the books as they are very different from other fantasy stories. There aren't many 'fantasy' series like this one. If you enjoy the different then I highly recommend.

Title: Beautiful Stranger: A Memoir Of An Obsession With Perfection
Author(s) and/or artist(s): Hope Donahue
Genre: Based on the author's true story, dark

Synopsis: Hope Donahue seemed to have it all: beauty, wealth, social status. She was an only child who grew up with the best private schools, debutante balls, and a home in Hancock Park, Los Angeles's old-money enclave. But beneath the family's facade of "keeping up appearances," Hope hid a host of ugly truths, including a mother increasingly jealous of her daughter's good looks, an uncle's sexual advances, and a father who cowed to the demands of his wife and coolly reserved parents. Hope became addicted to a quest for physical perfection in place of her self-esteem — and by the age of twenty-seven she had undergone seven plastic surgeries.

In riveting, unflinching prose, Hope recounts her downward spiral that alienated her family and friends, and led her to theft, bankruptcy, and a sadistic relationship before she began her recovery. A powerful response to a culture obsessed with extreme makeovers and risky procedures that promise flawlessness, Beautiful Stranger is a timely, cautionary tale. Her story will inspire the countless women and men like her who struggle every day in a culture that feeds us dangerous images of unattainable perfection.

Beautiful Stranger is a dark, scary, and important story of how broad social trends shape the suffering of individuals, how in the authoras case, the beauty addiction of a whole culture is mapped onto a dysfunctional family and an obsessive compulsive disorder. Donahue perfectly captures the predatory style of a certain kind of surgeon at once seductively flattering and solicitous and yet always on the prowl for access into the faces and bodiess of the vulnerable. Wounds

My Own View: This is important to be read by those who suffer of low self esteem. No one in this world perfect.

Publisher:

Rating: 5/5

Title: 24 Billy's Faces
Author(s) and/or artist(s): Daniel Keyes
Genre: Pychology based on tru story
Synopsis:

Billy Milligan, was the subject of a highly publicized court case in Ohio in the late 1970s. After having committed several felonies including armed robbery, he was arrested for three rapes on the Ohio State University campus. In the course of preparing his defense, psychologists diagnosed Milligan with multiple personality disorder. His lawyers pleaded insanity, claiming that two of his alternate personalities committed the crimes without Milligan's being aware of it. He was the first person diagnosed with multiple personality disorder to raise such a defense.

Billy Miligan had a number of personalities. These ten are the alters whom personalities "Ragen" and "Arthur" decided were not "undesirable." They freely shared consciousness, and doctors quickly learned of their existences.
1. Billy Milligan (William Stanley Milligan) is the core personality.
2. Arthur is an extremely sophisticated and educated Englishman. An expert in science and medicine, with a focus on hematology. He is in "the spot"—that is, in charge of the shared body—during times that required intellectual thinking. Arthur is one of only two personalities who could classify a person in the group as an undesirable.
3. Ragen Vadascovinich is the "keeper of hate." His name comes from the words "rage again." Ragen describes himself as Yugoslavian, has a Slavic accent and can write and speak in Serbo-Croatian. He controls the spot in dangerous times and can designate group members as "undesirable." He admitted committing robbery in order to support "the family," but had no knowledge of the rapes.
4. Allen is a con man and a manipulator. He is the most common person to talk to the outside world. He plays the drums and paints portraits. Also the only right-handed self. He is the only personality that smokes cigarettes.
5. Tommy is the escape artist; he is often confused with Allen. He plays the tenor sax and is an electronics expert. He is also a painter, specializing in landscapes.
6. Danny is afraid of people, especially men. He only paints still lifes, saying that this was because Chalmer made him dig his own grave and buried him in it.
7. David, age eight, is the "keeper of pain." He comes to the spot to take the pain of the others.
8. Christene, age three, was the one who would stand in the corner in school when "Billy" would get in trouble. She has dyslexia, but Arthur taught her to read and write. Ragen has a special bond with her.
9. Christopher, Christene's brother, plays the harmonica.
10. Adalana, a lesbian, cooks and cleans house for the others, and writes poetry. Milligan's attorney claimed that Adalana had admitted to committing the rapes without the knowledge of Milligan or the other alters.

These people were labeled "undesirable" after breaking the rules laid down by Ragen and Arthur. These alters were no longer allowed "on the spot" (i.e., to hold consciousness) and only revealed themselves after Milligan was sent to the hospital.
11. Phil is a thug and took part in planning some small time crimes. Has a Brooklyn accent. Marked due to him being a criminal.
12. Kevin is a criminal planner; he helped devise a plan to rob a drug store. Labeled also because he is a criminal.
13. Walter is Australian. He calls himself a big-game hunter and has an excellent sense of direction. Was often used as a spotter. He was labeled because he shot and killed a crow.
14. April only has thoughts about destroying Billy's stepfather. Declared an Undesirable when she convinced Ragen to kill Chalmer. Luckily though Arthur was able to talk him out of it at the last second.
15. Samual is the Jewish person. He is the only one who believes in God. Was marked because he sold some of the other people's personal paintings.
16. Mark is the workhorse. He is often referred to as the zombie because he does nothing unless he is told, and will stare at walls when bored.
17. Steve is the impostor, he uses imitations for comedy. Steve never accepted that he was an MP. He was made to be undesirable because his comedy caused the family problems.
18. Lee is the prankster and his practical jokes normally get the family into trouble. He does not care about consequences for his actions. He was made an undesirable because one of his jokes put them into solitary confinement.
19. Jason is the pressure valve. He was used at the beginning to release tension for the family, but he caused them to get into too much trouble and was marked as an undesirable.
20. Bobby always dreams of leading some adventure or fixing some global crisis, but he has no ambitions and was labeled due to that fact.
21. Shawn, who is four and deaf, makes buzzing sounds so he can feel the vibration in his head. He was labeled an undesirable because there was no benefit from being deaf later on in life. (Even though he is an undesirable he was never cast into the shadows beyond the spot; he was just never allowed to take the spot.)
22. Martin is a snob, from New York. He wants things just handed over to him without earning them.
23. Timothy worked in a florist shop until he encountered a homosexual who flirted with him. He went into his own world after that.

24. (Note: the teacher is not an Undesirable.) The Teacher, was by far the greatest milestone to helping Billy achieve fusion. He is the sum of all other 23 people put together, and has almost total recall of all the other people's actions and thoughts.

My own review:

Publisher:

Rating: 4,5/5